West Bengal allows international charter flights

Easing restrictions, the West Bengal government decided to allow international charter flights carrying Indian nationals with COVID-negative certificates to land at the airports in the state, a senior official said on Saturday.

The restrictions on Vande Bharat Mission flights will, however, continue, he said. The state government has written to the Ministry of External Affairs in this connection.

The state government has decided that presently only charter flights carrying stranded Indian nationals from abroad having a negative test report (RT-PCR) conducted within 96 hours of flight departure may land at airports in Bengal, the letter sent on Friday stated.

Accordingly, you are requested to kindly convey the aforesaid SOP to the Indian Missions and also to the ministry of civil aviation for further necessary action so that the chartered flights following the SOP may be scheduled with effect from August 10, it added.

The airlines should apply for a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the state government, specifying the sponsor, the number of passengers and their details, and an undertaking that all passengers travelling are COVID-negative, as per the standard operating procedures or SOP. A clearance from the Indian mission in the originating country or the MEA is also needed, it said. 

(representative image from PTI)